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Showing Thanks &

Appreciation: The Care of Adult

Volunteers

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Girl Scout of West Central Florida places a high value on recognizing

members who make a difference in the lives of girls and adults.

Appreciation and recognition for their contributions is expressed in many

ways. Adults join Girl Scouting to be of service to girls. They offer their time,

talents, and skills to girls and adults across the council. Thanks, tokens of

appreciation, awards, and earned recognitions provide a means with which

to acknowledge individuals for their service and impact.

People want and deserve appreciation for the work that they do. Whether it

is in the form of a simple “Thank you” for a task well done or a

commendation for years of service, such acknowledgement signals to the

recipient that they are noticed, appreciated, and recognized.

In this guide, you will learn about showing appreciation through informal

thanks and recognitions that are more formal. Please use this guide to help

you as you recognize and appreciate all of the things the many troop

helpers, troop leaders, and Service Unit volunteers do every day to help girls

become leaders with courage, confidence, and character who make the

world a better place.

What is Recognition…………………..….…3 Creating a culture of appreciation…..4 Informal and formal recognition……..5 Motivating volunteers………………….6-7 It’s easy to say “Thank You”!.............8 Get creative in your thanks!..............9 GSWCF Formal Recognitions….…10-11 GSWCF Adult Awards process……….12 GSWCF Adult Awards ceremony…….12 How to write a nomination…………….13 GSWCF Adult Awards Committee…..14 SU Awards Coordinators…………………14 How will I hear about awards?.........14 Appreciation & recognition timeline suggestions…………………………………….15

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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What is recognition?

Recognition is given to acknowledge someone’s service, impact, and contribution. People volunteer for a multitude of reasons, and underneath

it all, most volunteers are motivated by the impact they make on girls. When they know their time and energy are appreciated and they are

valued, volunteers feel more invested in the organization and happy that the work they are doing has a noticeable impact. Recognition is one of

the most powerful tools for retaining the invaluable women and men who volunteer in Girl Scouting.

Recognition reflects: quality of accomplishment, impact on girls, acknowledgement of many kinds of contributions, support of the Girl Scout

mission, inclusivity. It reflects high expectations and encourages continues growth and development and encourage adults to become more

involved in helping girls reach their fullest potential. Recognition

Recognition in Girl Scouting is to facilitate, acknowledge, give credit to, and celebrate the achievements and service of our adult volunteers. It

accents the spirit of volunteerism and results in renewed motivation, commitment, retention, and support for each other.

The key to successfully recognizing volunteers contributions:

Do it well

Do it often

Make it meaningful

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Creating a culture of appreciation

Giving and receiving appreciation is a critical part of Girl Scouting. Adults need to know the work they do on behalf of girls is valued. Whether t is

a formal Adult Award or a token of appreciation, it is imperative that we create an atmosphere of appreciation. We create a culture of

appreciation by identifying means of recognition, tools, and resources we can use for recognition and collaborating to recognize everyone’s

contributions.

An ideal recognition system includes a mix of informal and formal methods to acknowledge all of the contribution and accomplishments of

volunteers regardless of their role or length of service. It also meets a wide variety of personal preferences that are meaningful to the individuals

being recognized.

Appreciation is an on-going everyday process, for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Showing appreciation to one another is a way to show respect,

relate to each other, and build mutual commitment. Everyone benefits from a positive attitude and a culture of appreciation. What happens

throughout the year has much more impact than a single award ceremony or event. It is expressed on a year round basis in a multitude of ways

when we:

Have a genuine attitude of appreciation

Write personalized thank you notes

Provide training and personal development opportunities

Award certificates of appreciation

Encourage personal growth

Ask them to help in training or developing others

Put them in charge of a project utilizing their unique skills and interests

Write letters of reference

Give tokens of appreciation

Celebrate regularly

Have a year-end event or party

Verbalize our thanks

Keep in mind that successful recognition includes accessibility, inclusivity, and consistency and considers how it’s recognition efforts effect

retention and re-engagement.

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Informal and formal recognition

Informal recognition is the day-to-day appreciation-those intangible benefits and heartfelt ways of saying thank you. Sincere expressions such as

these are based upon specific contributions and are given in a timely manner, ideally as soon as possible after the contribution as possible.

Informal recognition is powerful and effective because it makes people feel valued by the

personal touch.

A welcome to the troop card

A thank you card

Show interests in the persons life beyond Girl Scouting (their interests, family, job, etc.)

A shout out on Facebook or at the troop or SU meeting

Complementing the person

Send a letter of appreciation to the persons supervisor or company

Saying “Thank you so much (name) for (be specific). Your help has been invaluable.”

While informal recognition is given as often as possible, formal recognition is the periodic presentation of tokens of honor and appreciation.

Formal recognitions bring a sense of connectedness amongst the group and the larger organization. Meaningful formal awards can include:

Achievement certificates

Public recognition in front of peers, media, or family

Personalized awards or gifts

Badges or pins

Nominations for local, council, or national awards

When planning formal recognition remember the impact of the presentation as much as the recognition itself. Consider the comfort of the recipient: what will make this special for them? When possible, do present formal recognitions in front of the larger group because it gives all the opportunity to express their appreciation and to discover ways they might like to support the mission. However, keep in mind that some volunteers may be uncomfortable in front of large groups. We will learning a bit more about GSWCF formal recognitions later in this document.

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Motivating volunteers

What motivates you? What motivates each of us—especially when we are volunteering? Answering this fundamental question helps us offer

meaningful recognition. These eight motivation factors are worthy of consideration:

.

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MOTIVATION

101

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It’s easy to say “Thank You”!

All volunteers benefit from expressions of gratitude which come from those with whom they work or those especially made by girls. On a day-to

day basis, thanks you’s are valued and can sometimes mean more thank occasional grand gestures. When and how the volunteer is recognized

will make the expression of gratitude memorable and appreciated.

Ways to thank volunteers can include:

A personal note for a job well done

A package of seeds with a note recalling their growth or how they helped the girls grow

A homemade treat

A photo memento of a special event with the girls

A bookmark with an applicable quote

A birthday-gram

A card with quotes from the girls of things they are appreciated for

Flowers

A singing telegram (delivered by the girls!)

An invitation to take them to lunch

A poster display of their service at your meeting

A special troop awards event “Troop Academy Awards”

A booklet of coupons redeemable for treats or tasks from you and the girls

A “bankbook: of deposits he/she has made in the girls lives

A song parody from the girls about him/her

A “This is your life” presentation

A birthday treat

A “warm fuzzies” poster with the warm things they have done for the troop

A patch or Girl Scout branded gift from the shop

A collage of keepsakes from a troop trip

A great place to find volunteer appreciation ideas is Pinterest! Did you know GSWCF has our own Volunteer Appreciation board on Pinterest?

You can find it at https://www.pinterest.com/gswcf/volunteer-appreciation/

Parents, you can show your thanks and support

for your daughters troop by:

Being on time to and from the meeting

Offering to help plan a field trip, start up

activity, or offering your skills

Show interest in what is going on in the

troop.

Take training to help out with camping,

archery, canoe, or other activities

Leading a Journey

Think about friends you have that may

offer to plan an activity for the girls

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Get creative in your thanks!

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GSWCF Formal

Recognitions

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GSWCF formal adult awards

There are several adult awards available for members. They each have the basic requirements of: currently registered member in good standing,

taken the training appropriate for their position, not earned the award previously, and the service is above and beyond the requirements of the

position. Each award also requires a specified number of nominations. Specific requirements for each award include:

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GSWCF Adult Awards process

Nominations

open for

submission

Fall

Nominations

deadline

Late February

Adult Awards Committee

reviews nominations

March

Board approves awardees

March

Awardees receive

ceremony invitation.

SU’s notified of Awardees

March

Adult Awards Ceremony

April

Annual GSWCF Adult Awards Ceremony

Each year, GSWCF holds and Adult Awards Ceremony in April for awardees

receiving the following awards: Honor Pin, Thanks Badge, Thanks Badge II,

Trefoil Award in Memory of Linda Scott, Heart of Gold Award, and 10 Years

of Service and beyond. Information about this ceremony is sent to

awardees by invitation.

Please note: awards not presented at this ceremony and therefore

presented in the Service Unit are: Volunteer of Excellence, Appreciation Pin,

5 Years of Service, all year of Numeral Guards.

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How to write a great adult award nomination

DO give as many details as

possible

DO tell the story of their service

DO be results oriented

DO avoid generalities

DO use specific details and

examples

DO remember the who, what,

when, where, why, and how

Show results

DO quantify their achievements

DO showcase how they went

ABOVE and BEYOND

SAMPLE Nomination

The opening should introduce the purpose/reason of the nomination and the nominee:

Sally is a shining example of the Volunteer of Excellence Award! She has led 2 troops of Cadettes and

Seniors since they were Daisies and volunteered this year to start a troop of Daisies when she

learned there were girls in need of a troop but no others had space available.

The rest of the nomination should describe the specific service, what they did, who benefitted and

how, what were the results of the service that was above and beyond the requirements of the position:

Sally has a warm and caring personality that draws girls in. She truly knows how to make each girl in her troops feel special. She remembers

every single girl’s birthday, sending her a card and cupcake, and remembers little things about each girl like her favorite color or animal. Word

has got around about the deep connection amongst the Sally’s troop members and several new members have asked to join Sally’s troop

specifically. My daughter and I met Sally in the grocery store and I asked about the Girl Scout t-shirt she was wearing. After talking to Sally about

Girl Scouts, my daughter said “Mommy, I want to be with her!”. She has a unique approach that enables her troops to be almost entirely girl-led,

even at Daisy level. Each girl gets to take one a meeting in teams and lead it. The girls also decide what activities they will do throughout the year

and work together to plan them. Some of these activities even push Sally herself outside of comfort zone (like zip-lining!), but she is willing to do

them for the girls. Her troops seem to have at least one activity going on every weekend. She even has created a “Big Sister” program where her

older troop works with the younger troop and is teaching other troops how to do this too. I am so grateful that Sally and her troop have become

a part of my daughters life.

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GSWCF Adult awards committee

The GSWCF Adult Awards Committee is comprised of appointed volunteers from across the

council and is supported by a committee chairperson and the Adult Learning Manager. The

committee serves throughout the year and are tasked with supporting the adult awards

process, developing recommendations for processes and helping to process nominations.

GSWCF receives hundreds of nominations for our many adult awards and requests for Year of

Service pins and Numeral Guards. Once nominations close, they meet as a group for a full day

to review each nomination in depth and develop their recommendations for the Board of

Directors who make the final approval of awardees. The committee takes their position

seriously and carefully review and consider each nomination against the criteria for the awards.

The committee also coordinates and delivers the Adult Awards Ceremony at Annual Meeting.

Service Unit awards coordinators

Each Service Unit contains an appointed positon of Service Unit Adult Awards

Coordinator. This person is responsible for helping to ensure the SU members are

represented with nominees for adult awards and educating others on their Service Unit

on adult awards, the process, and nomination writing. If you’re unsure who your SU

Adult Awards Coordinator is or you’re interested in being the SU Adult Awards

Coordinator, contact your Service Unit Manager or Community Membership Manager.

How will I hear about GSWCF’s adult awards throughout the year?

Beginning in the fall, you will begin to hear about Adult Awards each month in our newsletters: Troop Leader e-news, SU e-news, and Parent e-

news. You will also see periodic posts about Adult Awards on the GSWCF Facebook page. The Community Membership Managers will also share

information to the Service Units as it becomes available to them. The opening and closing date for nominations will be announced each fall. You

should also hear about Adult Awards through your Service Unit Adult Awards Coordinator. You can always check

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Appreciation & recognition timeline suggestions for troop leaders

August/September: Hold a rededication/investiture ceremony with your

adult volunteers and thank them for their support. October:

Think about your returning volunteers-Is this a five-year anniversary milestone? Complete the Years of Service pin request & log at www.gswcf.org/adultawards or is it a five years of membership milestone? Complete the Numeral Guard request & log at www.gswcf.org/adultawards

Oct. 31 Juliette Gordon Low’s birthday-thank a volunteer today!

November: Start to become familiar with GSWCF’s Adult Awards

and their criteria. Think about whom you might nominate for an award.

How can you give thanks in Thanksgiving season for your volunteers?

December: How can you show your troop or SU volunteers they

are appreciated during the holiday season? Think about those parents who have been especially helpful to your troop. What are some unique ways to show appreciation that you can use?

January: This is a great time to gather your thoughts and submit

adult award nominations for those volunteers who have gone above and beyond. Don’t forget to ask others to submit for those people as well.

February: GSWCF Adult Awards deadline is this month! Feb. 22 World Thinking Day-Thank a volunteer today!

March: Adult Awardees list comes out to SU’s and invitations

sent to awardees. Think about ways to recognize your nominees who

may not have earned an award and celebrate those who earned an award this year.

March is when Girl Scout Week occurs. What ways can you thank volunteers this week?

The birthday of Girl Scouting is March 12. April:

Volunteer Appreciation Month. What are some ways you can show your volunteers appreciation this month?

Leader Appreciation Day April 22. National Volunteers Week is the last week of April. GSWCF Adult Awards ceremony is held.

May: As you start to wrap up the Girl Scout year, find ways

to thank all of the adults who have helped you throughout the year.

June/July: Send an e-card to your adult volunteers over the

summer letting them know you are thinking about them and thanking them for their continued service. Tell them how much you look forward to working with them in the new Girl Scout year.

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Leadership Center

4610 Eisenhower Blvd.

Tampa, FL 33634

(813) 281-4475 • (800) 881-4475

Fax: (813) 282-8285

www.gswcf.org

Girl Scouting builds girls of

courage, confidence, and character,

who make the world a better place.